The older I become, the more I realize that drawing is the most important of all the problems of picture-making.
- Joaquin Sorolla

Art is, after all, only a trace — like a footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness.
- Robert Henri

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Harry Anderson Art

When I wrote about the terrific mid-20th century American illustrator Harry Anderson back in 2007, there were limited sources for images of his work on the web (though Leif Peng’s Flickr set is still going strong).

Thanks, to Jim Pinkoski there is now a new site devoted to Anderson and his work called Harry Anderson Art.

The image archives on the site are largely divided by the publications for which he did most of his work, along with additional sections for advertising art, religious art and calendars (of which the automotive calendars are a particular treat).

The images include detail crops and accompanying photos of the magazine spreads, in which the illustration art was often incorporated into the layout of the text.

It’s interesting to note that much of Anderson’s work was done in casein, an opaque water-thinned paint based on a binder made from milk. Anderson developed an allergy to turpentine, and after trying egg tempera and working with watercolor to some extent, settled on casein as a water thinned medium with some of the characteristics of oil. There is a discussion of his technique on Leif Peng’s Today’s Inspiration.